'Everyone gets their moment of fame': The stunning gold medal after-party for Dutch athletes at the Olympics

Parading with a samba band and dancing to Queen’s “We Are The Champions” on stage in front of hundreds of people - this is how Dutch athletes celebrate winning a gold medal at the Olympics.

Rowing duo Ilse Paulis and Maaike Head were the latest to take the stage at the Holland Heineken House in Rio de Janeiro after they won gold in the lightweight women’s double sculls on Friday.

After making a grand entrance to the beat of a dozen samba musicians, the pair marched through the packed crowd and took to the stage as gold confetti rained down from above.

“The Dutch are really famous for organising good parties. And this is really what the Netherlands has been doing for years. Everybody gets their moment of fame,” Ms Head told WWOS.

“And there’s music and there’s all these people who came all the way here to see us race, and they’re here to cheer us on. It’s amazing. I’m proud to be Dutch when I’m standing here.”

The extravagant national celebration is one of the perks of having a dedicated hospitality house at the Olympics, where athletes, along with their family, friends and fans, can watch events during the day and party every night.

The Netherlands was the first country to establish its own official hospitality house during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and it has since become an Olympic tradition, with more than 35 dedicated national houses in Rio this year.

But few do it on as grand of a scale as the Dutch, who have taken over a 100,000 square foot sports club near Ipanema and converted it into a sprawling base for all things Olympics-related.

There’s a swimming pool, a large nightclub area with live bands and Dutch DJs, a media centre for journalists covering Dutch sport, and plenty of food and drink on offer. It's been regularly packed since the Olympics started despite its A$68 entrance fee.

“A couple of other countries have these kind of houses as well now. But the whole Heineken House is the first and so it’s probably the best,” Ms Head said.

Both Ms Head and her rowing partner Ilse said that after their official gold medal celebration was over, they would keep on partying.